The Temporal Aspect of Bodily Experiences of Emotions: Where do You Feel The First Sensation?

Recently, body maps have increasingly been used to identify patterns in respect of the location of the physical sensations elicited by emotions. However, in addition to understanding how emotions are topographically manifest in the body, it is important to add a temporal aspect to deepen the interoceptive study of emotions. Therefore, the present study sought to explore the first perceived sensation. The study sample comprised a group of mindfulness practitioners (n=34) and a group of non-practitioners (n=64) to analyze if there was any difference in their perceptions of emotion. Participants were instructed to evoke five basic emotions (fear, disgust, anger, sadness, joy), and as soon as they became aware of where they felt the emotions start to emerge, were instructed to interrupt the observation and to indicate the region in a diagram of a human figure. Overall, the groups did not differ in the body regions identified for each emotion. Cochran's Q-test showed that the main regions mentioned were the head and the chest. In the case of disgust, the neck, rather than the chest, along with the lower part of the head were the most cited. The most cited regions corresponded to those identified in other studies of body topography as perceived with the greatest increase in activity in response to emotional stimuli. Regarding interoceptive awareness, the independent t-test verified that the mindfulness group scored significantly higher in all subscales of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the 37-item Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire compared to the non-mindfulness group.

The Temporal Aspect of Bodily Experiences of Emotions: Where do You Feel The First Sensation?

Recently, body maps have increasingly been used to identify patterns in respect of the location of the physical sensations elicited by emotions. However, in addition to understanding how emotions are topographically manifest in the body, it is important to add a temporal aspect to deepen the interoceptive study of emotions. Therefore, the present study sought to explore the first perceived sensation. The study sample comprised a group of mindfulness practitioners (n=34) and a group of non-practitioners (n=64) to analyze if there was any difference in their perceptions of emotion. Participants were instructed to evoke five basic emotions (fear, disgust, anger, sadness, joy), and as soon as they became aware of where they felt the emotions start to emerge, were instructed to interrupt the observation and to indicate the region in a diagram of a human figure. Overall, the groups did not differ in the body regions identified for each emotion. Cochran's Q-test showed that the main regions mentioned were the head and the chest. In the case of disgust, the neck, rather than the chest, along with the lower part of the head were the most cited. The most cited regions corresponded to those identified in other studies of body topography as perceived with the greatest increase in activity in response to emotional stimuli. Regarding interoceptive awareness, the independent t-test verified that the mindfulness group scored significantly higher in all subscales of the Brazilian Portuguese version of the 37-item Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire compared to the non-mindfulness group.

Interoceptive awareness and beliefs about health and the body as predictors of the intensity of emotions experienced at the beginning of the pandemic

Background The COVID-19 pandemic is a type of stressful event which might have an impact on psychological state. A prolonged threat of getting a serious, contagious illness is expected to be associated with an increase of negative emotions and, conversely, with a decrease of positive emotions. As the stressor is strongly linked to health and the body, we decided to investigate what types of factors related to body perception and appraisal are associated with different types of reported emotions. The purpose of the study was to verify the associations between three types of variables: interoceptive awareness as described by Mehling and colleagues (2012a, 2018), negative beliefs about health and body, and different types of emotions. Methodology A Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness questionnaire was applied to evaluate interoceptive awareness. The declared emotional state was diagnosed with a list of 20 emotions–divided by valence and origin. Additionally, a list of 10 negative beliefs about health and body was used. The study was held in a correlational schema with 299 subjects recruited via the social media platform Facebook who took part in an online survey. Results The study revealed that the scales of Self-Regulation and Trusting are primarily associated with negative automatic and reflective emotions and positive automatic emotions. Furthermore, the Self-Regulation, Trusting dimensions of interoceptive awareness predict an intensity of emotions categorised on the basis of valence and origin. In addition, negative beliefs about health and the body provided an adequate explanation of the variance of most of the types of emotions experienced during the pandemic. Conclusions Factors related to body perception, such as interoceptive awareness and negative beliefs about health and body provide a significant contribution to explaining emotional state at the beginning of the pandemic.

Psilocybin microdosing does not affect emotion-related symptoms and processing: A preregistered field and lab-based study

Background: Microdoses of psychedelics (i.e. a sub-hallucinogenic dose taken every third day) can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress according to anecdotal reports and observational studies. Research with medium to high doses of psilocybin points towards potential underlying mechanisms, including the modulation of emotion and interoceptive processing. Aims: In this preregistered study, we investigated whether psilocybin microdoses alter self-reported interoceptive awareness and whether repeated microdosing over 3 weeks modulates emotion processing and reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression. Methods: We used a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subject crossover design. Participants completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness Questionnaire 1½ h after self-administering their second dose (or placebo), and the emotional go/no-go task and the shortened Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 1½ h after self-administering their seventh dose. Results: Our confirmatory analyses revealed that psilocybin microdosing did not affect emotion processing or symptoms of anxiety and depression compared with placebo. Our exploratory analyses revealed that psilocybin microdosing did not affect self-reported interoceptive awareness, that symptoms of depression and stress were significantly reduced in the first block compared with baseline, that participants broke blind in the second block and that there was no effect of expectations. Further research in a substance-naïve population with clinical range anxiety and depressive symptoms is needed to substantiate the potential beneficial effects of microdosing.

Twelve-Week Yoga vs. Aerobic Cycling Initiation in Sedentary Healthy Subjects: A Behavioral and Multiparametric Interventional PET/MR Study

Interventional yoga studies with an active control group remain scarce and are important to clarify the underlying neurobiology. We conducted an interventional study in healthy controls using simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) imaging and psychometric scales. Thirty healthy, female volunteers (28.4 ± 8.4 years) participated and were randomly assigned to a 12-week yoga or indoor cycling intervention. Before and after the intervention, [18F]FDG and [11C]UCB-J PET was performed on a simultaneous GE Signa PET/MR with volumetric imaging. Psychometric scales were evaluated on affect, mindfulness, stress, worrying, self-compassion, and interoceptive awareness. Yoga subjects scored higher on interoceptive awareness compared to baseline (p < 0.001). Cognitive (P = 0.009) and overall cognitive functioning (P = 0.01) improved after the yoga intervention compared to the cycling group. We did not observe significant differences in glucose metabolism, synaptic density, or gray matter (GM) volume. The indoor cycling group did not show changes in psychometric variables, but significant increases in relative glucose metabolism were observed in the parahippocampal/fusiform gyrus and cerebellum (P < 0.001). In conclusion, 12 weeks of yoga practice has significant effects on interoceptive awareness and perceived cognitive function in starters. Longer interventions and/or higher frequency of yoga practice may be needed to detect cerebral metabolic and/or morphologic effects on the macroscopic level.